Exercise 2.3 - Converting Hexadecimal Digits Into Integers¶

Question¶

Write a function htoi(s), which converts a string of hexadecimal digits (including an optional 0x or 0X) into its equivalent integer value. The allowable digits are 0 through 9, a through f,and A through F.

/**
 * Exercise 2.3 - htoi program, character to integer program.
 *
 */

#include <stdio.h>

#define MAXLINE 100
#define BASE 16

int mgetline(char line[], int lim);

unsigned int htoi(const char s[], int len);

int main(void) {
    char line[MAXLINE];
    int len;
    unsigned int value;

    len = mgetline(line, MAXLINE);
    value = htoi(line, len);

    printf("The value of %s is %u \n", (char *) line, value);

    return 0;
}

int mgetline(char line[], int lim) {
    int c, i;

    for (i = 0; i < lim - 1 && (c = getchar()) != EOF && c != '\n'; ++i)
        line[i] = (char) c;

    line[i] = '\0';

    return i;
}

unsigned int htoi(const char s[], int len) {
    int digit;
    int power = 1;
    unsigned int result = 0;
    int end_index = 0;

    if (s[0] == '0' && (s[1] == 'x' || s[1] == 'X')) {
        end_index = 2;
    }

    for(int i=len-1; i>=end_index; i--) {
        if (s[i] >= '0' && s[i] <= '9') {
            digit = (s[i] - '0');
        } else if (s[i] >= 'a' && s[i] <= 'f') {
            digit = (s[i] - 'a') + 10;
        } else if (s[i] >= 'A' && s[i] <= 'F') {
            digit = (s[i] - 'A') + 10;
        }
        result += digit * power;
        power *= BASE;
    }

    return result;
}

Explanation¶

In this program we are going to convert a string of hexadecimal digits into integer value. If give input as F then the output should be 15. This is done by the htoi function:

int htoi(char s[])
{
int hexdigit,i,inhex,n;
i = 0;
if( s[i] == '0')
{
    ++i;
    if(s[i] == 'x' || s[i] == 'X')
        ++i;
}

n = 0;
inhex = YES;

for(;inhex==YES;++i)
{
    if(s[i] >='0' && s[i] <='9')
        hexdigit= s[i] - '0';
    else if(s[i] >='a' && s[i] <='f')
        hexdigit= s[i] -'a' + 10;
    else if(s[i] >='A' && s[i] <='F')
        hexdigit= s[i] -'A' + 10;
    else
        inhex = NO;

    if(inhex == YES)
        n = 16 * n + hexdigit;
}
return n;
}

In the above fragment of the program we declare some variables such as hexdigit for storing each digit in hexadecimal ,i as a counter,inhex as flag to see if we are still looking a hexadecimal and finally n where we store our converted hexadecimal number.

First we strip off any characters which look like 0x or 0X and then we enter to convert rest of the characters. Then we start the conversion process, we set the flag index to YES and n to 0.

Then in the for loop as long as index is YES, then we check each character 0 to 9, a to f or A to F. If we find 0 to 9, we store the value char - 0, if we find a character between a to f, we store char - a + 10, becase hexadecimal ‘a’ is decimal 10 and similar for character range capital A to F.

Then we take each hex digit and for it’s position or previous value stored in n, we mutiply by 16 and add hexdigit.

if(inhex == YES)
    n = 16 * n + hexdigit;

For example to convert 0XAF.

1. We strip off 0X.
2. For A, we get the value hexdigit = 10
3. n = 16 * 0 + 10
     = 10
4. We gather F, we store hexdigit = 'F' - 'A' + 10;
                                  =  70 - 65  + 10; (70 is ascii value for F, 65 is ascii value for A)
                                  = 15
5. n = 16 * n + hexdigit
     = 16 * 10 + 15
     = 160 + 15
     = 175

175

Visualization¶

Try It Out¶